Kinda suprised to be honest because I was actually not very impressed by the first episode particularly the choreography.

Even though the second episode told a story I had already seen in the movie version I thought it was alot more polished.
Here's waiting for disc 2 next month so I can get my hands on episode 6 to see Ishii's second and probably better effort.

There's some great ex-Daiei directors (Tanaka, Ikehiro, both worked on Zatoichi/Kyoshiro and so on) and I guess, some assistant directors (it was a common practise for tv shows like that... a shame when we know that some great directors really wished to direct some episodes... anyway...).

Nice. Odd that they use the English titles though, rather than romanised Japanese or straight translation. Nice to know they use Tarantino's name to sell these anywhere in the world

izo wrote:I don't know who is 土居通芳

Thanks for the info.

Doi Michiyoshi (that's a guess!) was one of Shin Toho's lesser known directors in the late '50s - early '60s. After that he seems to have moved on to TV gigs. JMDB Link

edit: He seems to only have one Daiei credit to his name: 'Shitto' (Jealousy) from 1962.

He also directed the intriguingly-named 'Kuroi Chibusa' (Black Nipple/Breast) in 1960 with Sugawara Bunta for Shin Toho. ([url=http://www.amazon.co.jp/栄光の新東宝映画傑作選「黒い乳房」-小畑絹子/dp/B000063VX4]Amazon[/url]) Might have to try and track that one down...

Last edited by eddyospina on 24 May 2008, 18:31, edited 2 times in total.

Over the past year or so Cinema Epoch have quietly built themselves into one tasty little boutique label for fans of unusual film, particularly of the Asian variety, and the menu just expanded considerably. The company picked up a fistful of classic titles at the recent Cannes Marche Du Film and will be bringing all of them to DVD in 2009 with brand new anamorphic transfers taken from new prints of the films. What have they got?

BAD GIRL MAKO (Furyo Shojo Mako) (1971)Director: Koreji KuraharaCast: Junko NatsuCult classic from Nikkatsu Studios. Patronized by a gang ruling the city, Mako delinquently plays around a nightclub everynight with her bad company. When her lover Hideo is murdered by the gang, Mako swears vengeance on all of those responsible.

YELLOW FANGS (Rimeinzu: Utsukushiki yuusha-tachi) (1990)Director: Sonny Chiba/Kinji FukasakuCast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Bunta SugawaraYuki’s family is killed by a huge maneating bear, and her childhood friend Eiji and his fellow hunters set off in search of the murderous beast. Although she cannot join them as women are forbidden from entering the mountains, she is determined to pursue a perilous quest for revenge. Based on a true story.

THE HEARTBREAK YAKUZA (Saraba itoshiki hito yo) (1987)Director: Masato HaradaCast: Hiromi Go, Mariko Ishihashi, Kazuya Kimura, Koichi SatoA precursor to John Woo’s “The Killer” about an up and coming Yakuza member who accidentally blinds a childhood friend during a shootout. An impressive early work by director Masato Harada. The Japanese title was later used as a Sony Playstation game.

I've not tested the IVL Toei titles Hung, only bought a couple from the first batch of titles IIRC, will have to go through my collection to see which ones. I never bought Bullet Train and Makai Tensho though.

At least IVL used dvd-9 with those Toei films, unlike with the Kadokawa releases. The sad truth was that my custom dvd-5 discs (created from the R2J's) had much better compression than those commercial IVL Kadokawa dvds, although they used the same source material as the R2J's. The subtitles were also badly timed and I had to spent hours fixing them so that they would meet my own fansubbing standards.

I own too many DVDs Anyway I found the titles, they're a couple of Fukasaku titles: Rage of Love and House on Fire.

At least IVL used dvd-9 with those Toei films, unlike with the Kadokawa releases. The sad truth was that my custom dvd-5 discs (created from the R2J's) had much better compression than those commercial IVL Kadokawa dvds, although they used the same source material as the R2J's.

Yeah the badly compressed DVD-5 problem is exactly the reason why I avoided those releases. I did want to buy a fair few of the titles, but thought i'd wait and see what made it to R1 land.

Toei’s low priced batch is coming November 1. There seems to be at least a lot of yakuza films, a couple of Hideo Gosha movies (Tokyo Bordello, Wives of the Yakuza + non-Gosha sequels) some pink (School of the Holy Beast, Mantis Wife’s Confession) etc. No Abashiri Prison unfortunately...

Kadokawa’s low priced dvds hit the streets October 24th. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (original threatrical cut, almost certainly), Resurrection of the Golden Wolf, Beast to Die, The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (Obayashi), Legend of the Eight Samurai etc. Note that many of these are available in R1 and / or R3 HK. The R1 dvds should about the same quality, but as mentioned before in this thread, the IVL HK discs feature shitty encoding and badly timed subtitles.

Not a single bad movie in the list. Amazing filmography, and that's not even complete. Can't wait to see the Wandering Ginza Butterfly films. Also, hopefully Toei will back us up with Wolfguy Enraged and Tarao Bannai: Kimen mura no sangeki dvds soon.

Norifumi Suzuki’s humour has never been very intelligent. But this... is a landmark in stupidity. Based on manga by Shinji Mizushima (who also has a cameo in the film) it’s a baseball – karate comedy with some ”drama” thrown in. The characters are probably 1:1 copies of the manga heroes... it’s really the only logical explanation. Or how else do you explain a character who has a 10 inch flower in his mouth in every scene. Or a guy who wears baseball glove in his leg. Obviously not for everyone, but offers good laughs for those who enjoy Suzuki’s triple-swedish-o grade jokes. Those looking for slightly (only slightly) more substance and higher quality should check out his excellent Truck Yaro films from the same era (1975-1980).

The image quality is good as you can see from the caps, but what's really worth mentioning is that Toei has found not one but two teasers from their vaults. Behind the scenes footage, including some with the manga author Shinji Mizushima can be see in the teasers. Trailer and stills are also included. Toei's Tarao Bannai dvd (see the next post) features one teaser and one trailer, both with some fantastic promo footage (but not behind the scenes clips). The transfer is excellent.

Tarao Bannai ala Norifumi Suzuki is a dialogue loaded detective film that gets increasingly weird as the case becomes more complicated. Although the tempo is rather slow in the beginning, it will change later. Humour is plenty, and Suzuki has a couple of big surprises in his back pocket, including some Italian genre cinema borrowals. Akira Kobayashi and his numerous disguises play the lead role. Toei’s no. 1 yakuza and karate villains Bin Amatsu and Masashi Ishibashi also appear, among many other stars.